But who knows for how long? It turns out that the Residence Inn that we're staying at has broadband, but I didn't find out about it until a couple hours ago. Then I discovered that I hadn't packed any ethernet cables with my laptop...

So after a trip back to the house between feeder bands (with an additional delay to cover up one door that we missed earlier), I'm on the air, until the power or bandwidth give out, whichever comes first.

As anyone who's been following the storm knows, the damned thing slowed down to nine MPH today, so landfall is coming later than anticipated. We haven't seen much yet, except a couple feeders, with (fortunately) no tornadoes. It still looks like it's heading somewhat north of us, and the Cape is still in danger.

We're still in the target area, at the extreme southern end, as far as being hit by the eye. If it hits north of us, it will be a blessing (for us) because most of the heavy winds will be off-shore, and there won't be as heavy a surge (flooding of the house was the biggest concern, and one that we could do nothing about, other than wrapping it in whatever they put Han Solo in). But the door that we belatedly shored up was on the west side of the house, so we decided to buttress it a little more.

I'm anticipating an interesting twenty-four hours, with (at a minimum) steady tropical-force winds hitting sometime before morning, increasing to hurricane force throughout tomorrow, with eyefall on the land sometime during the day or evening. Earlier is bad, because that means it will hit farther south (us). Later is better, even though it prolongs the agony of the decibels and groaning structure.

We're in a comfortable hotel room, built fifteen years ago, but if the storm hits here dead on, it will be the biggest one it's ever seen, even though the intensity has dropped off to a Cat 3 (it may increase once it's done scouring the Bahamas, in anticipation of slamming the Treasure Coast--lucky us). We're enjoying a meal (possibly our last nice one for a while) of grilled salmon and Caesar salad and champagne (the place has a kitchen).

We're hoping that the hotel will hold out all right, but the worst case is that we all huddle in an interior bath (four of us, with no windows) for the few worst hours, screaming above the winds howling through the broken windows. Obviously, I hope (but don't pray--I still don't know to whom to do that) that it doesn't come to that.

Oh, and to commenter "John" in the previous thread? I rarely use language like this in my blog, but fuck you. With sandpaper.

Posted by Rand Simberg at September 03, 2004 05:17 PM

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You know, Texas has had two major hurricanes in the last 24 years, as compared to one major, one a sliver shy of major, in Florida, in three weeks, andn Tropical Storm Ivan will probably cross Cuba as a hurricane September 15 and hit south Florida, again.

Florida had wildfires so bad they postponed the summer Daytona NASCAR race.

Riots in Miami. Contested elections.

OK, sure, technically, Texas has more tornadoes than any other state, but Oklahoma has more per capita and more per square mile. Of course, Florida also leads the nation in lightning, alligator and shark fatalities.

Texas has no state income tax, and the parts of Texas not in the Mountain Time Zone don't have wildfires or earthquakes.

Frances had weakened from earlier in the week to a Category 2 storm from a Category 4 on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity, but remained dangerous. Authorities told Floridians to get under cover and stay there.

"We don't want to have people lose their lives because of abject stupidity," Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Bush emerged from the Republican National Convention with an 11-point lead over Democrat John Kerry, according to a Newsweek poll released on Saturday, the second straight survey showing him ahead by double digits.